SEC Will Not Require XBRL Data Audits

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced that companies adopting eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for regulatory filings will not need an additional audit of the conversion of their data, reported Reuters.

As part of an XBRL roundtable discussion Monday, Cox said requiring an audit on converted financial data could result in "crib death" for the XBRL project.

Currently, only about two dozen companies, including Comcast Corp. and General Electrics Co., are participating in the SEC's voluntary XBRL pilot program.

During the roundtable, representative companies of the pilot program said their costs have been minimal -- as low as $5,000 for the first year, according to Comcast Corp. CEO Larry Salva.

The project's next step is to create more electronic tags for information such as management discussion and analyses, according to Reuters. These are expected by the fourth quarter, XBRL US vice president Rob Blake reported at the roundtable.